


The Jungle Temple

by saturnwritings



Series: Saturn's Tales From Beyond The SMP [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Attempt at Humor, Dream Team SMP Lore (Video Blogging RPF), Feral boys, Fluff and Angst, Gen, HELL YEAH :], Humor, Karl Jacobs-centric, Minecraft Mechanics, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, Web Series: Tales from the SMP, at least :), i like to think that im funny, i think??, its my own tale from the smp :), kind of?, man i dont know how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:16:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29759511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saturnwritings/pseuds/saturnwritings
Summary: TALES FROM BEYOND THE SMP PRESENTS:The Jungle TempleWhile visiting a faraway savannah village, the Feral Boys, as they had dubbed themselves, start to hear rumors about inhabitants disappearing into the neighboring jungle biome. When they find out an abandoned jungle temple has been tempting passersby with promises of treasure and riches, will they be able to overcome the challenges of the temple and uncover the truth?
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity & Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Alexis | Quackity & GeorgeNotFound & Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs & Sapnap
Series: Saturn's Tales From Beyond The SMP [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187210
Kudos: 8





	The Jungle Temple

**Author's Note:**

> been working on this baby for so long now but i had to write this group for feral february >:3
> 
> i have so many more tales from beyond the smp (as i’m dubbing this soon to be series) planned out, but do comment if you have any cool ideas or maybe even follow my twitter (@SAIL0RSATXRN) or hell! even add my discord while you’re at it (saturn#6949)
> 
> also i'm so sorry there is just so much exposition in this im so sorry i swear after like 1k words it gets better. i was getting up there in like the 2k range for exposition but i managed to take it down :)

The sweltering heat of the savannah was unforgiving in Karl’s colorful jacket. Still walking, he shrugged off the outerwear and tied it around his waist. It was right about then when he wished he had taken up Sapnap’s offer on borrowing his hat, and regretted how he made fun of Sapnap for looking like a cowboy. With one hand raised above his eyes to block out the sun, and squinting, he could make out the outline of the village they were staying at, ugly acacia roofs and all.

Their day of grinding for materials had been a productive one, if a bit tedious, but it was necessary; the whole reason they were in the village was to do some trading - to help the local economy and whatnot! Still, the constant chopping down and replanting trees and shovelling sand had taken quite the toll on Karl’s forearms and lower back. 

The familiar feel of a soft dirt path of the village was a welcome contrast to the spiky tall grass of the wilderness. As the sun was setting and the group neared the village inn, Karl heard an _‘oomf’_ sound to the right of him and turned to see Quackity on the floor with a woman, who was rubbing her head.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t see you coming.”

With Quackity’s left hand adjusting his beanie, his right hand stretched out to help the woman up. As soon as they were on their feet, the woman looked up, and audibly gasped.

“Travellers!” 

Taken aback, Karl nearly dropped his water bottle out of surprise. He supposed they did look very obviously like travellers, what with all the tools and gadgets they brought along with him, but what confused Karl the most was the lady’s face; Her eyebrows were raised, but the angle of them told Karl she was upset, _worried maybe?_ She wore the typical clothes of the people of the village, her hair was greying, and her tilted eyebrows were only worsening the creases on her face. The woman looked between everyone with wide eyes.

“Did you come through or- or past the jungle by any chance? The one to the East?” Karl honestly thought they were just exploring and wandering for the most part, so he had no idea, but to the left of him, George pulled out a map.

“No, ma’am, we just came from the West, we were at the forest edge.” George straightened out the map to smooth it, then pointed somewhere Karl couldn’t see.

The woman nodded slowly, inspecting the map, before casting her gaze aside, “Oh, I see.” The woman shifted nervously on her feet, “Well, I suppose you lot should be on your way, then.” And with that, she hurried off into an adjacent alleyway.

The group exchanged glances with each other before shrugging and silently deciding to collectively pay the interaction no mind.

Later that night, the boys sat together around the communal table of the inn. Drinks were flowing, the chatter was constant, and the tabletops were slightly sticky, but Karl couldn’t bring himself to care. As he relished in the atmosphere, his eyes trailed off to admire the pretty full moon. Through the diamond muntins on the window, Karl could see the village illuminated in the moonlight, the nighttime wind causing acacia trees to sway and the leaves to rustle, not that Karl could hear it over the loud background. One thing that stood out, though, was a shadowy figure in the middle of the street. Karl’s head tilted in curiosity. It was the woman Quackity had run into earlier that day. She was looking off into the distance with her arms wrapped around herself and hunched over.

He looked over to his friends, but seeing as they were distracted by a new roast that had just been brought out, Karl stood up and turned to the bar. Getting his glass of some concoction of tropical juice topped up, he turned his attention to the bartender.

“That woman out there, is she okay?” He gestured to the window, “My friends and I ran into her earlier, and she seemed kind of… shaken up.”

The bartender pressed his lips into a line, his eyes wincing slightly.

“Auntie Agnes,” he nodded in her direction, “Her son Archie’s gone missin’, left a couple weeks ago and hasn’t come back. She’s still waitin’, poor soul.” He shook his head. Karl bit the inside of his cheek, before speaking up.

“She asked us if we came from the jungle on our way to the village… was her son an adventurer?” The man shook his head solemnly. As he started to brew another drink, he explained.

“Few weeks ago, a wandering trader came through the village, looked pretty beat up. ‘Said he found an empty jungle temple, the guards weren’t there, nothing. He tried to check the chests but got shot with an arrow. He swears it was some sort of redstone trap, but the poor man was probably hysterical, was probably just a skellie.” Karl nodded along, “Ever since then, people’ve been trying to get in, but none have ever come back,” the man shot Karl a playful smile, “or maybe they’ve just been running away with the loot. You must know the rumors about those sorta temples having lotsa treasure, some artifacts, you know.”

Karl thought for a second, “Hypothetically, how would one find the temple? Jungles are pretty big.” The man huffed, amused.

“If you want to get to the temple, you have to get a map from the trader. Luckily for you, he’s still in town, in this very inn, his injuries haven’t healed completely.” The bartender shot Karl a look, “While I do discourage it, he’s in Room 12 if you want to talk.”

The inn’s game room was a complete 180 from the tavern, although that might have been because it was past midnight, and most of the inn’s residents were already asleep. As Sapnap dealt another set of cards to everyone, Karl cleared his throat.

“So, I heard something interesting today…” 

Sapnap chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully, “When do you not Karl?” 

“I’m serious! Apparently, a merchant found an abandoned temple in the jungle, the last guard must’ve died or something,” Karl definitely had their attention. 

“A jungle temple means lots of treasure!” Quackity’s eyes were as wide as the full moon outside.

George crossed his arms, thinking, “-and no guard would mean easy access…” 

Anticipation started building in the room, but Dream was still hesitant, “But if this is, like, a big thing going around, how do we know the treasure hasn’t already been taken?” Karl winced.

“I mean… the guy I asked said that might’ve been the case,” Karl looked up, determination pooling in his eyes, “But I still think it’s worth a try!”

A few glances were thrown around the room, but the smiles everyone was giving each other, some albeit warry, told them they came to a silent, but mutual agreement. The Feral Boys spent the rest of their night going over the plan that would, in a few days, hopefully lead to their success.

“No going back now!” With that, Quackity ran straight up the cobblestone stairs. 

George gave an incredulous look before shouting, “There might be traps, watch out!” The four boys heard a faint _what?_ , and George shook his head. 

After breakfast that day, they had headed straight to Room 12. Needless to say, they had acquired a map and Dream was twenty seven emeralds poorer. The temple ended up being located in the middle of the jungle. Pyramidal in shape, with a long stretch of stairs made of old cobblestone winding up to the entrance, which happened to be on the very top layer of the temple. The neighbouring foliage had long since overtaken the temple, mossy stone and vines now incorporated into the design. Karl grinned.

“Last one up’s a rotten turtle egg!” Karl then followed Quackity’s suit and ran up, trying not to trip on the cracked stone. He laughed a bit hearing his friend’s commotion behind him.

Reaching the top, he saw Quackity inspecting the open archway entrance. He felt someone nudge him, and turned to see Sapnap nodding in the direction of the threshold.

“There’s a tripwire.”

Karl shrugged, “Just walk over it,”

The group all looked at each other, before Dream took one last look into the darkness of the temple, and stepped over the tripwire, the others following after him shortly.

Connected to the doorway was a long corridor, burnt out torches lining that walls filled with engravings of symbols, some they recognized, some unfamiliar. George, who stood next to Dream in the front, pulled a torch out of his inventory, all while Dream walked slowly, inspecting the ground, walls, and ceiling for any potential traps. At most there were a few fragments of pressure plates that looked as though they didn’t work anymore, still, the group were careful in their trek.

The corridor finally opened up to a room, a large door made of stone sat in the center of the opposite wall. The stone was smooth, and the door only had a crack down the middle; without an obvious handle, the crack indicated it was opened by triggering something else. As Dream took out his own torch to inspect the door more closely, Quackity took it upon himself to light up the rest of the room. Now with more visibility, the room was more clear to them. It was a standard box shape, but it was littered with chests and barrels and other trinkets semi-hidden in groves in the wall. Next to the door, there was an iron ingot next to a wilted rose. Karl grimaced. Looking at one of the nearby chests, he noticed a notch on the back hinges. 

“A trapped chest.” He only half-whispered, subconsciously sucking in a breath.

Dream hummed from the other side of the room, “Best not to touch anything, then.” 

Karl joined Dream near the door. It was lined with a frame full of carvings of constellations and other random stars, mimicking a night sky, the arch above the door housed symbols that Karl didn’t think he recognized. Before he could stare at the symbols for too long, though, George’s voice cut through the air.

“A color puzzle? Really?” George raised one eyebrow, unimpressed, but his expression turned to a scowl when Sapnap playfully slapped his back and let out a laugh.

On the adjacent wall was a line of eight levers, all placed on different colored terracotta. Sapnap took a step forward and, before anyone could stop him, pulled the lever placed on orange terracotta. 

Nothing happened.

Everyone let out a collective sigh. George smacked the back of Sapnap’s head with a quiet mumble of _‘idiot’_. The group scattered again to look around for clues, Karl stumbling across a double chest, although when he checked the back of the latch for any indication it was trapped, but found it was a standard chest. Opening it, he avoided the rotten flesh and dug up three gold nuggets, an arrow, and a stack of around five square tiles. Before he had time to examine them, he heard Quackity call out.

“Guys I found some tiles,”

“Same here,”

“Here, too.”

Now with thirty-two tiles spread out in the middle of the room, each of the boys had found at least six, but Dream and Sapnap argued on who found the remaining two, the group sat, occasionally picking up a tile or two, trying to figure something out. The tiles all had something etched on them relating to space, there were constellations, different moons, and planets. But there were also tiles with depictions of things like different mob faces, flowers, and there was also a four pointed shape, perhaps a rune, sitting diagonally surrounded by a box that none of the boys recognized. The tiles were also bordered with a colored trim, although most of them were different colors. 

So engrossed in the tiles, Karl didn’t notice Dream had gotten up to investigate the room a bit more, but his attention was caught when Dream gasped, followed by the sounds of pistons and stones being moved.

“Guys, I found a pressure plate,” Karl turned to Dream to see his foot on a stone pressure plate that was hidden behind a stack of barrels, “I checked around, there aren’t any traps.”

“Look!” Quackity pointed to the big door, “It’s different now,” The others exchanged looks of confusion, as at first glance, there was nothing different about the room, as Karl stared harder at the door, he noticed the engravings of symbols on the arch of the door had become words. He gasped.

“Wait, Dream, step off of it,” Karl wanted to test a theory. Standing up, he watched the words closely, and it was just as he thought: As soon as Dream stepped off the pressure plate, the panel at the top of the arch was retracted, presumably by a sticky piston, and was replaced with a panel with symbols. “Okay, wait, stay on the pressure plate.”

With the words back, Karl could see they formed a riddle:

_Round she is, yet flat as a board,_

_Altar of the Lupine Lords,_

_Jewel on black velvet, pearl in the sea,_

_Unchanged but everchanging, eternally._

“What could that mean?” George asked, the others also looked deep in thought. As his eyes trailed off and down the sides of the archway to meet the carvings of space, his mind wandered back to the tiles, and how it probably wasn’t a coincidence they both centered around space. Whizzing past everyone starting at the riddle, his eyes quickly scanned, the others starting to catch on. Dream placed a nearby vase on the pressure plate and joined them.

“I think we have to arrange the tiles in some kind of order, and then the colors are the order of the levers,” he started.

“And the riddle is a hint to which tiles we pick!”

With newly found motivation, the group resumed picking up tiles. Despite the green and white bandana covering the lower half of his face, Karl could tell Dream was deep in thought. The way his eyes glared at the levers, his eyebrows furrowing. 

Looking back at the riddle, one word stood out to him.

“Does anyone know what lupine means?”

“It’s it a flower? That one that looks like corn, or, or lavender?” George tilted his corn.

Karl almost missed Quackity’s incredulous _‘corn?’_ as he thought for a second, “What if it means wolves or, like, werewolves? Lupus, lupin?” 

Sapnap’s eyes darted around the room, before he gasped, and Karl just about jumped out of his skin.

“The moon! Werewolves like the moon! And the moon is round, and the sky is dark and the moon stands out: a jewel on black velvet!” 

The group exchanged looks before turning back to the tiles. As it turned out, there were different moons etched onto different tiles. None of them were particularly skilled in astronomy, but they were able to figure out if the levers needed to be flipped in a certain order, the moons needed to be arranged in a coherent order as well, and they settled on the phases of the moon. Unfortunately, none of them actually knew the phases of the moon, but luckily, they could use context clues and order them according to the shapes.

Eventually, they were able to figure out the order, working together fairly well and without much commotion, although there had been a few times George had almost thrown a tile at Sapnap, before Dream had to step in and stop him. The order was as follows, _red, orange, light blue, lime, brown, yellow, purple_. 

As soon as the purple level was flipped, the heavy-sounding door had opened, and the boys looked at each other, victoriously.

Entering the next room, what they weren’t expecting was parkour. To be fair, Karl didn’t know if it was intended to be parkour in the ancient days, he supposed the locals knew of an easier way to get in, and this was all just formalities. At any rate, the room they stood in was partially uncovered by way of skylights, and the moss was a good indicator that the room had been housing greenery and was left untouched for a while now. Stepping through the archway, they stood on a platform, a body of water separating them from a doorway on the other side of the room, and the doorway was much higher. Thankfully, there were many rocks that had risen in a very convenient pathway to the doorway. 

Peering into the water, they could just about make out obsidian below the water, either it was an extra precaution, or there had once been lava covering the surface, now replaced and covered up with water. The water, from what they could see, was housing all kinds of aquatic wildlife. Tropical fish was in abundance, but the group were able to spot a few more dangerous fish, like puffer fish and piranhas.

Dream smirked, before cracking his knuckles, backing up a bit, then sprint jumping to the first platform, then the next, then the next. Karl almost rolled his eyes, though he did internally admit that at least Dream’s fingerless gloves served more purpose than just for fashion for once, because Dream didn’t slip even once, his grip tight.

Unlike Karl, George did roll his eyes at Dream’s show offish behaviour, before starting the parkour, albeit a bit more carefully, but Karl could tell he was desperately trying to catch up. Karl, Sapnap and Quackity giggled a bit before starting the parkour as well.

Despite his playful attitude leading to many people underestimating him, Quackity was a very capable individual, laughing at his friends’ antics and breezing past the parkour and making Karl pout, who was stuck on a rock he couldn’t get past, but there was no malice behind his expression. Seeing his face, Sapnap, who was on the rock in front of him, laughed a bit, before jumping back to Karl’s rock. 

“Here, stand on the edge and crouch, yeah, okay, like that, then sprint and catch onto that groove there, you see it? Yeah, then pull yourself up.” Sapnap demonstrated, Karl following. When he got on the next rock, he stumbled a bit, but luckily, Sapnap was quick in catching him before he fell into the water into his impending doom.

“Thanks,” Karl paused, “Sapnap.” He smiled.

“Anytime.”

The rest of the parkour was easy, what with Sapnap coaching him along. In the end, they regrouped with Dream, who looked very proud of himself, George, who was crossing his arms, trying to look indifferent, and Quackity, who was trying to stifle his laughter. 

“Took you guys long enough!” Quackity rolled his eyes, ushering Karl through the doorway. Although he was obviously joking, Karl was still sheepish. The rest followed. 

The next room was much smaller than the rest. On the opposite side, there was a doorway, but it looked as though there was a wall on the other side, on the left, a plethora of levers and buttons, and on the right, carvings of what looked like a maze, with different symbols scattered around. Right above the maze, there were four main symbols, a creeper face, a wither skull, a fire emblem, and that four sided rune encased in a box they had seen in the first room.

“So this is a maze then?” Dream tilted his head. They all looked closer at the engravings.

“Look! It’s a fire for Sapnap.” Quackity grinned, pointing at the second symbol. Sapnap laughed and slung his arm around Quackity’s shoulder.

“Hopefully this is a challenge I’ll be good at, then.”

With that, the group entered the maze, the pathways so narrow it forced them to walk single-file. The cracked stone was rough against Karl’s fingers as they traced the walls. Thankfully, the room wasn’t damp, but instead, the moisture was replaced with dust clinging onto the air, but surprisingly, the surfaces he could see weren’t covered at all. 

Karl didn’t know how long they had been walking for, but all of a sudden, the ground started to move below him. He reached out to grab a hold of a wall and stabilize himself, but he fell onto his knees, grazing his head on something hard, probably a wall. As he started to rise onto his feet again, he rubbed his head, the voices of his friends calling out. 

“Guys?!” 

The voice was undeniably Quackity’s. Karl turned, but Quackity had disappeared from behind him, George wasn’t in front of him either. The walls around him looked different, he didn’t see anything that looked the same. Below him, there was a carving of a creeper face.

“The maze moves!”

That was Dream. They were all split up, then. 

“I’m standing on a creeper face symbol!”

That was Sapnap. As it turned out, Everyone started on a creeper face. Karl didn’t like it in the maze. It was dark and dingy and dusty, and his friends’ voices echoed off the sturdy walls. He knew they weren’t moving, but the walls felt like they were closing in on him. He couldn’t see anything but stone, it was all around him, suffocating him. 

“Karl, you okay?”

Sapnap again. The voices were still kind of fuzzy.

“Yeah, I’m good. Standing on a creeper face, too.” He clutched his head.

“Alright, everyone call out, try to find someone!”

Karl couldn’t bring himself to move, still trying to stabilize himself. He let himself fall when the wall he was leaning against disappeared, and he felt motion sickness as the floor moved, the world spinning around him.

“It moves every thirty seconds,” That was George, he figured it out, the first step, at least. “I’m back on a creeper face.” Everyone else was moved on a creeper face if they weren’t standing on something else. Next came Dream.

“I think you have to be standing on a certain symbol each time it moves. I found a wither skull before we moved, I’m still standing on it now, nothing changed!”

The voices were still a bit unclear, but Karl managed to push himself up.

“Everyone find and stand on a wither skull!”

Clutching the wall desperately, Karl turned the left corner and found a strange four pointed shape surrounded by a box, the others called it a rune, or even a crystal. To his luck, though, there was a wither skeleton skull on the ground of the adjacent path. Now standing where he was supposed to, he took a moment to let his head clear, his vision stopped spinning and he could finally focus on his surroundings. After thirty seconds, he could hear stones rubbing against each other, the telltale sound of the maze moving again, but to Karl’s relief, it was distant. 

“Guys, I’m back on a creeper face!” 

With no valuable input, Karl listened as his friends worked out that with each rotation, you had to be on a different symbol, and you couldn’t stay put. Just when Karl thought they would be out of luck, as they didn’t know the order of the symbols, Sapnap’s voice called out.

“Next is fire, I remember it was the third one!”

“The order so far is creeper face, wither skeleton skull, and fire!”

Pushing himself off the wall, Karl half-stumbled around in search of a fire emblem engraved in the floor. The maze’s walls were so repetitive, and it was almost impossible to find a way around. Karl kept searching, he found the likes of many other creeper faces, a few wither skeleton skulls and even one rune, but no fire, and soon enough, the ground started to rumble, and Karl started to panic. Everything around him started moving, he cried out when he was hit by a moving wall, his back colliding with another hard surface.

“Karl! Are you okay?!”

Karl groaned.

“Karl, just try to find a wither skull, okay? We’ll figure out the path 

Mustering up the last bits of his strength, Karl managed to call out, “The rune! The crystal!” With that, he rested his head against the wall. He counted down the seconds from thirty, and the ground started to move again, but sitting down, it was at least bearable.

“Guys, I’m at the end, there’s a lever!”

George had found the end. The stone surrounding him started to shake, Karl braced himself and held his arms to cover his head and face. What he didn’t expect was for the walls around him to start coming down. As the walls lowered, he could finally see the room he was in.

It was large, maybe a hundred blocks in width and length. It was completely enclosed with no windows to the outside, save from the doorway which they came through and the one next to George, who still had his hand on the lever, seemingly holding his breath. The redstone and machinery housed between these walls must have been insane. 

With his eyes still wandering, he didn’t notice Sapnap running towards him, almost tripping on a retracting wall, until he felt someone grip his arm. Sapnap pulled out a glass bottle with a pink, swirling liquid inside; a healing potion.

“Here, drink slowly.”

After a while, Karl started to feel the soreness in his muscles fade away. Sapnap helped him up, being mindful of any scrapes or areas that looked as though bruises would start to bloom. By the time they had crossed the threshold of the doorway, the potion had started to set in, and he could walk without having to hold on to Sapnap, albeit a bit slowly. 

The hallway that followed was quite dark, only illuminated by the dim light of the redstone torches that lined the wall. There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

“I really hope that was the last one. Usually with things like this it’s only like, three trials, right?” Quackity said to no one in particular. They continued down the hallway. 

What welcomed them was a room shrouded in dappled light peeking through the leaves and vines covering the lattice of stone of the ceiling. The pillars encompassing the room showed the outside of the surrounding jungle, Karl noted that there must have been some ancient invisibility spell cast on this specific room, as you could see though, but there was no indication from the outside that it even existed. Rectangular, the room dipped in with steps every so often, not by very much, with a slightly raised platform in the middle.

Around them, gold, iron, emeralds, and other riches, even some diamonds, were scattered around in piles, his friends immediately started beelining to them, Dream making a detour to a lectern surrounded by ancient scrolls tied with various bright colored ribbons, if the yellowing pages and tattered edges were anything to go by. What caught Karl’s attention, though, was a stone brick pedestal sitting on the raised platform in the middle of the room. Strangely, the surrounding area seemed untouched, almost new, and none of the foliage seemed to be growing in that area.

What laid on the pedestal was a statue, a dragon statue to be exact, with an intricate body carved out of a yellow stone Karl had never seen before, and bright green eyes blending into teal borders, almost mimicking emeralds, or perhaps something Karl had seen before but couldn’t quite place exactly. 

Impulsively, Karl walked over to the middle and picked up the statue with both hands, gazing into its beautiful eyes, the green so mesmerizing, like pools of liquid jewel. The body had swirls and other lines carved into it, some as thin as hair. The dragon was in a sitting position, but its wings were outstretched and on display. The expression was not frightening, neither was it calm, it had an aura of pride to it.

Karl could not admire the dragon for long, however, because the ground started to shake beneath him. Pausing to turn and look at his friends, only to be met with their confused expressions, his attention was snatched away by an archway to the left suddenly collapsing. Whipping around, Karl finally noticed a square on the surface of the pedestal to be slightly lower, something that had not been there before.

_A pressure plate._

“It’s a trap!”

More and more rocks started dropping around them, pillars started collapsing, and soon enough, parts of the ceiling started falling, as well. Karl could see Sapnap helping up Dream, who had fallen down at some point, while George was closing up his bag. 

Hugging the dragon statue close to his chest, Karl was about to take his leave, before he heard Quackity yell out to him.

“Karl, watch out! Above you!” 

Snapping his head up, his eyes widening as he leaped towards the side, narrowly avoiding a giant boulder that had almost dropped down on him. As he leaped, though, he held his arms out in front to brace, dropping the statue in the process. His eyes buzzed around the room, before spotting the statue on a ledge against the wall. Without thinking, Karl pulled himself up more fallen rocks, and headed in the direction of the statue.

“Go back to the parkour room, we can go out through the skylights!” Dream yelled out, Karl just barely hearing him over his own heartbeat ringing through his ears, his fingers burning as he tried to traverse the rocks. So trained on the statue, Karl didn’t notice Quackity’s confused but concerned looks.

“Karl, come on, this way!”

Snapping out of his daze, but not breaking his sight with his target, he called out, “The statue!”

“Leave it! Karl, we need to go!” The urgency in Quackity’s voice was enough to get Karl to let out a huff before pushing himself up on shaky legs, and taking one more look at the exit.

“That’s all she wrote, I guess.”

The collapsed temple looked like nothing more than a pile of rocks, subtle engravings scattered around were the only thing hinting at what once was. 

Sapnap threw himself onto the ground and let out a big sigh, “I’m just glad we made it out of there alive.” 

Dream and George followed suit in joining Sapnap on the floor, George sitting upright and pulling out some cooked salmon and a couple baked potatoes before distributing them to the rest of the group. Time had seemed warped in the temple, they had entered pretty early in the day, but when they emerged, the sun was just above them. As Karl graciously took the offered food from George and sat down, Quackity leaned over to him to check for any injuries, the others chatting idly next to them.

“That was pretty close, in the treasure room,” Quackity said, examining a few scrapes on Karl’s arm, before deeming them harmless enough and turning to his own food, “Why didn’t you come out straight away?”

He shrugged, “I saw a pretty artifact,” Quackity huffed.

“Well, at least you got out. Your life is way more important than some stupid artifact.”

Karl smiled.

The smell of books was a good and welcome contrast to the pungency of flowers and mushrooms. Pulling out his inventory, he took the dragon statue, taking a moment to stare into its beautiful green eyes again. He smiled. He walked over to the shelf, and hesitated, before deciding it would look good in between The Stranger’s Mask and a pretty gold ingot, he thinks he got it from some sort of treasure hunt. As he reached up to place the statue on the shelf, he caught a look at his arms.

His sleeves were different. Or were they the same?

He doesn’t write this in his book. Instead, he wrote about his most recent journey, the friends he had met, the places he had been, and what he remembered and what he didn’t. He placed the book with the others.

With one last look at the shelf of artifacts and trinkets, he turned, climbing up the ladder, and opened the trapdoor.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! mayhap leave a kudos or comment if you enjoyed :D i'm planning on doing a lot more of these so if that's something you're interested keep an eye out! 
> 
> ALSO!!!! i kinda wanna get a beta? we could brainstorm ideas and check each others works if you write and just talk and play minecraft and what i'm saying is i want friends please none of my friends follow the dsmp and i dont know how to make friends online o_o 
> 
> ways to contact me are in beginning notes :]


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